Thursday, September 30, 2010

Facts, Schmacts...

Gov. Chris Christie’s plan to separate educators who deserve raises from those who deserve pink slips using student achievement data will not improve test scores and could force effective teachers out of the profession, according to education experts and two recent reports....

In the first scientifically rigorous test of merit pay, Vanderbilt scholars offered between $5,000 and $15,000 to Nashville math teachers whose students scored higher than expected on a statewide exam.

But the incentive was a bust, they found. Except for some temporary gains during the three years studied, students did not progress any faster in classrooms where teachers were offered bonuses.

"The experiment was intended to test the notion that rewarding teachers for improved scores would cause scores to rise," the report says. "By and large, results did not confirm this hypothesis."

If you at all care about this issue and want to see reason applied to the teaching of our children, there is something very, very important that you must understand:

The other side does not care at all what the facts are.

A massive amount of scientific data confirms that global warming is real and caused by man-made activity; they still deny it. There was absolutely no evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction or that he was at all involved in the 9/11 attacks; many of them, to this day, maintain he had WMDs and directed the terror plot. Every serious economist in the world maintains that the Bush tax cuts are the primary cause of the deficit; they refuse to believe it.

Now Chris Christie is solidifying his reputation as the Sarah Palin for a new decade by pushing educational reforms that have absolutely no basis in fact, logic, or research.

These people do not care about the truth. They have an agenda and they will distort, bluster, bully, and outright lie at every turn to cram that agenda down the throat of every person who knows something is wrong with this country but, thanks to an incompetent media, cannot get information to understand why.

What to do?

1) Under no circumstances are the words of the people pushing this nonsense to be trusted at any point. Do not believe Christie when he tells you he only has a problem with the union. Do not believe him when he says he is looking out for the property tax payer. Do not believe him when he claims the money isn't there to fund the pensions. Once a liar; always a liar.

2) Do not trust the allies of these people. Oprah, Jeff, Cory - when you line up with a guy like Christie:

you're dead to me. Don't talk to me about how much you care about the kids; if you care about them that much, do your homework, and learn that people who really know what they're talking about clearly think his ideas are mistaken.

3) Make the case forcefully, loudly, and repeatedly. I want to see Barbara Keskishian on my TV every day striking this stuff down. I want her calling out Jim Gearhart for not having people like Bruce Baker on his show to discuss this stuff. I want the NJEA supporting Ed Potosnak strongly and telling Leonard Lance to go pound salt. I want Steve Sweeney embarrassing the governor by demanding that he stop spending his time racing around the country running for vice-president and doing endless appearances on Morning Joe, and instead get back to Trenton and get to work.